The third night
by AmiliaPadfoot
Summary: AU,Set on Harry's third night after the dementor attack in OotP. Uncle Vernon comes home drunk one night. Better than it sounds. Please R and R.


The third night

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story just the idea for the story.

A/N: This is my first fan fiction so please be kind and tell me if I have not given the right warnings so I can set it right.

Summary: AU, A Dudley and Harry fic set on Harry's third night in Privet Drive after the dementor attack in OotP.

Warning: Domestic abuse.

_AVADA KEDAVRA! Nooooooo! No! Not Cedric! Don't kill Cedric! He was coming closer, and closer, rising again. Oh the pain, the never ending pain, it was encircling him, suffocating him. The darkness was coming, closing in on him, Bow to death Harry, it might even be painless, I would not know, I have never died; The Dementors were swooping in, sucking at his soul. Even the shimmering, ghostly figures of his parents could not help him, Dad, help me dad, He's going to kill me, come and help me, Dad, mum, He's killed Cedric, help me!, He's going to- But it was too late they were closer than ever before, he could hear his mum's pleading voice ring throughout his mind, Not Harry! Not Harry! Please- I'll do anything, __!_

"_Harry!"_

"_No!"_

"Harry!"

"No! Leave me alone!"

"Harry! Wake...Up!"

"Let go of me"

"Harry, wake the hell up!" Harry sat bolt upright in bed. He was shaking; he could not deny that, it had been one hell of a dream. He was used to such dreams, but with the Dementor incident only happening three nights ago, it was still raw in his mind. Needless to say the dreams were far worse than those he knew he would have later. The room swam before him, a big pink blur right in front of him that vaguely represented a human face. Taking deep steadying breaths, he felt around on the desk to his left and found his glasses. When his vision swam into perfect focus he saw one of the people he would definitely _not _want to see after one of his nightmares, especially not one of his more vocal ones.

"Dudley! What are you doing here? _How_ did you get in here?" Had his uncle not locked him in his room? He did not bother asking _why_ Dudley was here but if he _was _here to mock him and taunt him, like he had done three nights previously, he was not going to take it. He had been left in this rotten house without so much as a by-your-leave by Mrs Figg and none of his friends were responding. He was definitely not in the mood to satisfy his relative's sick sense of humour. Just because he knew he could not hex his cousin to oblivion did not mean he couldn't punch him in the face. But all his pent-up frustration with both the Wizardingworld in general and Dudley soon evaporated when he noticed that someone had done it for him. There was a purple bruise forming around his right eye. Who would have the nerve to hit his cousin, the school boxing champ? Had it happened during the dementor attack, or more recent events? "Dudley what happen to your e-" even Harry noticed how sleep-deprived his voice sounded.

"Never mind! Harry I don't know what to do" The genuine panic in Dudley's voice was enough to put Harry on full alert; the dream soon forgotten.

"Dudley, tell me what's going on!" He demanded.

"He's hurting her!"

"What? Who? Who's hurting who?" Just then both Harry and Dudley's heads snapped to the door that Dudley had obviously flung wide open, as they heard a crash from down stairs and the shattering of glass. Harry grabbed Dudley's shirt, coercing his cousin to focus on him and only him. He forced his voice to sound as calm as possible. "Dudley. Listen to me. Tell me what's going on. Has someone broken in?"

Harry's calm yet firm voice seemed to bring Dudley out of his hysteria.

"It's Dad. He's relay drunk Harry" Harry cursed under his breath. Why couldn't life be simple? Just once? He jumped out of bed and then slowly creped onto the landing so he could get a better idea of what was going on. He had to strain his ears to untangle his Aunts pleading voice with his Uncles drunken slurs. He could just wake out snatches of coherent words and phrases.

"He has to stay you said, why, you- you like him, do you, hmmmm?"

"No, no, detest him. Yes- yes I do really. Look why don't you just sit- sit down and i'll- i'll make c-"

"Shut up, stupid w-"

"No I-"

"-Don't deny it!"

"I'm sorry!"

"-nothing but bad luck- lost my job- free loader- Nearly killed my son!" So they were arguing about him. No surprise there. His Uncle had the tendency to blame everything that was bad in his life on Harry. It hadn't been so bad when he would just mutter under his breath about what an ungrateful delinquent he was or simply criticised his every move but then Vernon had lost his job. Of course he had blamed Harry for this, thought for once Harry had to accept that he was slightly right seeing as Dobby wouldn't have came to the house if he was not there. On Harry's twelfth birthday his Aunt, Uncle and cousin had held a dinner party for a mister Mason and his wife in the hopes of making 'the biggest deal of my career' as Vernon had put in. Far be it to say the night had not gone well at all. In a cruel twist of fate once again Harry's past had came back to haunt him. Mr Mason had been made Vernon's boss and unfortunately for him hovering puddings and owls were not an easy thing to forget, especially if said pudding had been dropped on your wife's head. Vernon had been sacked within days. That's when the drinking had started.

"What do we do?" Dudley's hushed voice from his doorway brought him back into focus.

"Do you still have a mobile?" He whispered back. Dudley shook his massive head.

"Broke it" He admitted. Harry cursed.

"We'll have to use the one down stairs then"

"What?" Dudley looked fearful at the very thought.

"We need to call the police or something!" he whisper-shouted at his cousin. A quiet yet blood-curdling scream was heard from downstairs and was abruptly cut off. This was more than enough to make up Dudley's mind. He may be a coward most of the time, only preying on those weaker than him, but nobody, _nobody_ messed with his mum, not even his dad. He turned to Harry and nodded. A look of determination flashed across his face.

"I'll follow you" He had always seen Harry as pathetic and weak, not worth the bother and he had whole-heartedly agreed with his uncle's attitude towards him, but the dementor attack for one had proven just how wrong he was. Over the past few days he had seen Harry in whole different light. It was not only the fact that he saved his life but the way Harry refused to back down to his Uncles taunts and yet ignored him when he was being baited. He had begun to realise just how strong his cousin is. He had not failed to notice the difference between the ways the two of them had woken. Dudley had been scared and panicked; his first action had been to run to his younger and smaller cousin, and yet Harry had been up and alert in seconds flat, quickly taking charge, his calm domineer instantly reining in his hysteria. He might not have made many smart choices in his life but he knew he had just made a good one. Harry just nodded back, hiding his shock that Dudley would ever say such a thing to him in an un-jeering manor, and began to creep silently down the stairs. He had a Je ne sais quoi of someone who knew exactly what he was doing and Dudley would have be surprised if anybody did not follow Harry. Right now, he would follow him anywhere.

Harry had no idea what he was going to do. His Uncle must be either really drunk or really angry (_or both, _Harry thought bitterly) to turn on his Aunt. He'd had a go at Dudley last night but he had never hurt his Aunt. Vernon may not have always shown it, especially recently, but he loved Petunia. It wasn't the first time he had gone for Petunia in a blind rage though, usually he would prefer to take his animosity and frustration out on Harry and Harry had used this to his advantage on that solitary occasion. Deep down Harry had the feeling that he was going to have to play decoy once again but he pushed the thought away, concentrating on making as little sound as possible, a feat that Dudley was failing at miserably. The cousins tensed as a step creaked loudly under Dudley's weight. Seconds passed, in which he could feel the light summer breeze that wafted in from the front door that his Uncle, in his drunken state, must have left open and then the quiescence was broken by a sickening sound of someone hitting flesh. It was no longer time for stealth he conceded. When they had reached the bottom of the stairs Harry knew it was time to act fast. He gave his cousin a shove and pointed to the kitchen door on his left where the phone was. Dudley nodded and made his way into the kitchen and out of Harry's sight. Harry then took a deep breath and flung the living room door open. He felt a surge of antipathy saw through him at the sight of his Uncle. His Aunt was curled up in a ball, her back against the wall, cowering. His uncle towered over her, swaying slightly. He raised a huge fist above his aunt, ready to strike and it was then Harry did something both very brave and very stupid. Vaguely remembering a Halloween night long a go where he had done the same thing with a mountain troll, he ran at his uncle and jumped on him. The memory of that night was even clearer in his mind as he shouted at his Aunt just like he had once Hermione.

"Get out of here! Run, Run!" He called, clinging on to his uncles back for dear life as the huge man tried to shake him off. To Harry's surprise his Aunt did just that, and later Harry would wonder if Hermione had not run that day in the bathroom because there was a bravery in her that stopped her from running away from danger and not because she tended to freeze when the heat was really on because his Aunt did definitely not have more sense than Miss Hermione Granger and yet she did not mind running in the least, but Harry did not have time to ponder this now. His uncle grabbed him off his back and through him into the wall.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Yes, yes- number 4, Privet Drive- please hurry" It was when Dudley put the sweat-covered phone down that he heard his cousin cry out in pain. It was strange, Dudley thought, how a sound that he himself had contributed to cause on many occasion and indeed revelled in whenever the sound was emitted from his cousin's lips, could now bring him such anguish. So much had changed for Dudley the past few days, quicker than any other in his life. He could still hear muffled cries of pain coming from the living room as his mum stumbled in.

"Mum!" he rushed to her, grabbing hold of her for she was swaying dangerously.

"Diddy! What are you doing downstairs?" she croaked.

"Calling for help" he replied, eyeing his mum up and down, taking in the bruises that were blossoming on her face. He wanted to weep at the mere sight of her and yet yell in blind rage at the same time.

"Oh you clever boy" Dudley was about to explain that it was Harry's idea when he heard his father's vociferation.

"Your entire fault boy! You are nothing but-but- a freak! You ab-abnormal freak! No one would love you!"

"We've got to help him mum, the police are on the way, but they could be ages!" His mum shot an uneasy glance at the doorway as another barely suppressed yelp was issued from the living room. It was quite plain that his mum did not want to go anywhere near the room where he was sure his cousin was having no picnic and with one glance at the bruises that ran down her jaw he could not say he blamed her. Dudley felt a shiver down his spine when the thought, _if this is what he did to the woman he loves then what was he doing to the skinny, fifthteen year old that he detests so much?_ crossed his mind.

"I'm- I'm sure they'll be here soon Diddy" She did not sound so sure.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry was trying his hardest not to cry out as his Uncles fist slammed into his stomach for what felt like the millionth time. What was taking Dudley so long? Had he called for help? He sincerely hoped so for, although he had achieved his goal of getting his Uncles attention on him instead of his Aunt and cousin, he did not know how long he could keep this up. Surely his Uncle would get bored of him. Would he then just stop or would he go after his Aunt again? Surely not. He _had _told her to run and the front door was wide open. No, he knew she had not left; she would not leave without her Diddikins.

His Uncle, much to Harry's relief however small, was at such a state of drunkenness that he couldn't even beat Harry properly-not that it didn't hurt. It had soon turned in to a contest of who was going to pass out first and, although he hoped to god it would be his Uncle, the pain had reached such a level of intensity that he wouldn't care if he did so long as he felt no more. He screwed his eyes closed as his Uncle raised his fist for what would surely be the final blow. But it never came. Harry opened his eyes as he heard the sound of running feet pass the living room door. So his Aunt and cousin had left. Harry couldn't help but feel a pang of betrayal that they had left him there but it was greatly overshadowed by his relief that they were safe. With the distraction passed his Uncle turned back to Harry. His face twisted into a sneer as he raised his fist again only to be distracted once more, this time by a shout that Harry realised belonged to his cousin.

"In here!" Harry heard more rushing of feet, this time heading towards him and soon enough he could see the outline of two people coming through the doorway. The police had arrived, they were safe. And with that comforting thought he passed out.

**Please review! Criticism welcome! I don't think I did too badly for my first attempt, but that's for you to decide. Annon reviews welcome. **


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